Well, it’s official. I Think I Am Going To Have To Do It. Buy an e-reader, that is. Sigh, she said. I have been a fairly vocal opponent of this trend so far, and stand behind the basis for my primary complaints, which are as follows:

• I love the feel of a book in my hands. Reading is, in part, a tactile experience for me. I love the heft of a big fat new work of fiction, the shifting weight of the book in my hands as the left-side pages finally begin to outweigh the right-side pages, and the way those last few skinny pages feel when I’m nearing the end…
• I love going to bookstores and browsing through the piles of books on sale and specialty tables. I love letting my eyes wander over the rows and rows of titles on shelves. I love seeing what catches my eye and then trying to figure out why and if the eye-catching-ness is in fact symptomatic of the interest-catching-ness of the story.
• I love looking at other people’s bookshelves. I admit it freely – I judge people more than a little bit by the books they own (or don’t own). It’s not the only basis for judgment, but I have made many an “oh, we’re going to get along fine!” decision upon seeing a spate of shelves filled with interesting titles in some new friend/acquaintance’s home/office/whatever.

That said, I can freely admit there are benefits to e-books/e-readers also, and it is these things that seem to be weighing most heavily and tilting me ever-so-increasingly onto the side of e-reading. Continue reading I Think I Am Going to Have to Do It or “Sigh,” She Said